Under police scrutiny, her story unraveled. Renford confessed she had concocted the grim fairy tale « because she found her boyfriend cheating on her, » according to a police report.

Renford reckoned a fabricated gang rape might spur reconciliation with her two-timing beau and prod him to « be nicer to her. »

Unbelievable.

Yet, sickeningly familiar. Of late, the commandment that admonishes against bearing false witness against your neighbor has taken a pounding. Since May, several women have been found to have cried wolf after having cried rape.

Renford’s admission was the straw that broke the backlog of police silence.

Beyond wasted taxpayer dollars and police man-hours, the invented attacks have revived a broader tension, which Cathy Young identifies in a recent Newsday piece:

« Many feminists argue that the problem of false accusations is so minuscule that to discuss it extensively is a harmful distraction from the far more serious problem of rape. On the other side are men’s-rights activists, claiming that false accusations are as much of a scourge as rape itself. »

Bull’s-eye. Whenever false rape allegations spin in the news cycle, as a father, my soul stands on a razor blade betwixt that divide: Knowing how false accusations can color police response should — God forbid — my daughter ever need a sympathetic ear; and fearing for my son in a world where the right words from the wrong lips can destroy reputations and land you behind bars.

Researchers have struggled to pinpoint the prevalence of false rape claims. Estimates range widely from about 2 percent to 90 percent. However, the most trusted studies put the figure between 8 and 10 percent.

False claims are a headache for Nicole Quinn, who is at the helm of the Victim Service Center of Orange County. They undercut the already arduous task of persuading real rape victims to come forward.

« There is potential that the recent cases involving false allegations of sexual violence will negatively influence legitimate rape victims from coming forward to receive recovery services, report the crime to law enforcement and ultimately hold their offenders accountable, » she says.

Such allegations are rare, she says.

« The process is not friendly. It’s invasive. Very infrequently do women concoct a story and put themselves through this process, » she says.

Yet, like a recipe tainted by a pinch too much salt, a little can wreak a lot of damage.

Juries can’t help but recall high-profile fabrications such as the Duke lacrosse case. And local cases surely have a similar influence.

That’s why states such as Pennsylvania have pushed for stiffer penalties for knowingly false accusations. In Florida, providing a false report is a first-degree misdemeanor. That can be punishable by up to a year in jail, although many factors weigh in sentencing, says Danielle Tavernier, a spokeswoman for Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar.

A father from the United Kingdom had only one defence against his daughter’s accusation that he had raped her for six years: He didn’t do it. Cathy McCulloch, who became the man’s attorney a week before his trial, noticed something odd about the girl’s statements to police: She used words and phrases that seemed too… via […]

Legions of feminists will ferociously type smash the patriarchy! at their Internet rallies, calling out for the end of the male supremacy in all spheres of life. Yet, few of them acknowledge the fact that one of these spheres, the government (the institution granting them rights), is entirely funded by male taxpayers. Economically, women cost more to the sta […]

A world that’s ruled by Women…..really? wow I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste. David Bissonette When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her. Sacha Guitry After marriage, husband and wife […]